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Energy Politics: Cape Wind Plan Sees Potential in Year Ahead

Beginning today, developers of the Cape Wind project in Nantucket
Sound will face a new political landscape as they continue their bid to
build the nation's first offshore wind farm.

Gov. Deval L. Patrick, an ardent Cape Wind supporter, was sworn into
office on Beacon Hill yesterday afternoon, minutes after the new
Democrat-controlled Congress convened in Washington, D.C., with
renewable energy reform as a top priority for the coming legislative
session.

But results from the historic November election were not all
positive for Cape Wind supporters. The wave of Democratic victories last
month swept out of office two moderate New England Republicans who were
vocal advocates for the project on Capitol Hill, and the shift in
control will also increase the power and influence of U.S. Sen. Edward
Kennedy and Cong. William Delahunt, two of the strongest Cape Wind
opponents.

Groups on both sides of the project are still trying to interpret
the political changes, acknowledging that the results present a mixed
bag.

"On the state level, it's certainly gratifying for us to
have a governor that sees the project in a larger context - as far
as economics, the environment and energy - and that there's
an intersection of those things," Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers
said last month.

"Overall we saw the elections as more positive than
negative," said Audra Parker, director of strategic planning for
the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, a well-funded Cape-based
nonprofit that formed in opposition to Cape Wind. "But it was not
clear across the board."

Cape Wind wants to build 130 wind turbines on 24 square miles of
Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound. Supporters say it would provide
roughly three-quarters of the electricity needs of the Cape and Islands
and serve as a symbolic step toward cleaner energy in this country,
while opponents are concerned about aesthetic and navigation impacts,
and also broader policy questions of a private developer using public
land without paying for it.

After five years of review, the project is still working its way
through an environmental regulatory process, and the federal agency in
charge of the permitting does not expect to make a final decision for at
least another year. Even though elected officials have no direct say in
the permits, supporters and opponents of the $1 billion project have
long acknowledged that its ultimate fate will face heavy political
influences from state and federal officials.

In their governor and attorney general, Massachusetts voters last
fall replaced two staunch Cape Wind opponents who had vowed to fight the
project despite any favorable permitting decisions. Former Gov. Mitt
Romney, who is now preparing a run for the 2008 Republican presidential
nomination, visited the White House two years ago to lobby against Cape
Wind and pledged at one point to use all of the powers of his office to
kill the project.

Governor Patrick, on the other hand, made energy reform and his
early support for Cape Wind a hallmark of his gubernatorial campaign.
Last month he appointed Ian Bowles, a fellow Cape Wind supporter and
former Woods Hole resident, as his secretary of energy and the
environment.

The new Massachusetts attorney general, Martha Coakley, is also
expected to be a welcome reprieve for project developers. She replaces
Cape wind opponent Thomas Reilly, who two years ago said that he would
challenge any federal permit.

Though she has not yet taken a formal stance on Cape Wind, Attorney
General Coakley, a former Middlesex County district attorney with long
ties to the Vineyard, told the Gazette this summer that she would
analyze factors including the soaring price of gasoline and the high
demand for energy before putting together a position on the issue. Her
statement contrasted sharply with Mr. Reilly, who in a separate
interview this summer called the proposed project a power plant and said
Nantucket Sound should be off-limits to private developers. Mr. Reilly
did not run for reelection as the top Massachusetts law enforcement
official, and instead launched an unsuccessful gubernatorial primary
campaign against Governor Patrick.

Though the changes on Beacon Hill are expected to help Cape Wind by
removing potential roadblocks, jurisdiction over the wind farm remains
largely with the federal government, where there have been multiple
legislative maneuvers aimed at killing the project. The overall
atmosphere for Cape Wind is expected to be more favorable under the new
110th Congress, with Democratic leaders pledging to hold hearings on
climate change and push new tax credits and regulations promoting
renewable energy.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California, will take over the
environment and public works committee from Sen. James Inhofe, a
Republican from Oklahoma, who used his position as chairman to attack
media coverage of global warming, which he called "the greatest
hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." Another key target
of environmental groups, former Cong. Richard Pombo, a Republican from
California and the outgoing chairman of the house resources committee,
was defeated in the fall election by Jerry McNerney, a wind energy
executive whose company intends to manufacture turbines.

But Cape Wind also lost two important Capitol Hill allies in Sen.
Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Cong. Charlie Bass of New Hampshire,
popular moderate Republicans who were both toppled by Democratic
challengers this fall. Senator Chafee had publicly expressed his support
for the wind farm and visited Horseshoe Shoal with project officials
last summer, and Congressman Bass last spring played a key role in
holding up a house vote on a federal bill that would have given Gov.
Romney veto power over Cape Wind.

Meanwhile, the strongest Cape Wind political opponents in Washington
D.C. are gaining added influence over the project. The second most
senior Democrat in the senate, Senator Kennedy will now become one of
the most powerful players in all of Congress. The Democratic majority
will also increase the power of the entire Massachusetts delegation,
including Congressman Delahunt, whose legislative district encompasses
the Cape and Vineyard.

Mr. Rodgers said Cape Wind hopes to meet with Senator Kennedy at
some point to discuss the project. But he added that, despite the
reelection of Congressman Delahunt and Senator Kennedy, the new state
leadership could change perceptions about public support for the wind
farm.

"Before the election, the most visible representatives of the
state who took a position on the project were all strongly opposed. And
Cape Wind opponents were certainly eager to get the rest of the country
to believe that meant Massachusetts was against the project," Mr.
Rodgers said last month. "With Governor Romney and Attorney
General Reilly on their way out, we think that impression - to the
extent it was out there - will change."